15 Most Influential Games of all Time

From 1 bit graphics to polygons rendered from the comfort of your home, we count 15 of the most influential games in video game history..

15 – Diablo,

The game that kicked off the loot grinding fad, without Diablo Borderlands wouldn’t have had nearly as many guns, MMOs would not have focused on the endgame and the entire Diablo-like genre wouldn’t have existed.

Diablo’s influence has been largely beneficial, it set up the system of rewards for those who just want to play the game whilst still receiving rewards that ultimately don’t mean anything.

14 – Farmville,

Yes, unfortunately this game belongs on this list; Farmville started the Facebook and casual gaming kick that is still rampant to this day, while it’s no longer relevant, without it the casual gaming market would be very different and possibly not nearly as penny pinching.

And for only an additional $1.99 you can hear the rest of the information about Farmville, otherwise you’ll just have to wait for another week and get your friends to share this countdown 10 times.

13 – Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,

This is the game that popularised aiming down the sites, a weird mix of arcade and military shooters as well as things like perks and sprinting; all of which we take for granted nowadays.

While this game isn’t for everyone it’s hard to deny just how much it affected the seventh generation of console gaming; without it, military shooters would all be clones of Counter Strike or hard-core simulators.

12 – Virtua Racing,

This game was the first to do a 3D racing game right, thus kick-starting the entire genre that many people enjoy to this day, it wasn’t the first game to do 3D racing, but the most influential games aren’t always the first.

Virtua Racing doesn’t really hold up by today’s standards in any respect, however, without it who knows if 3D racing would have taken off? 3D racing could have been another Guitar Hero scenario where it died off shortly after beginning.

11 – GoldenEye 007,

Enjoy playing shooters on your consoles? You have GoldenEye to thank for that, before the existence of GoldenEye shooters were primarily a PC genre, the same way RTS games are today.

Of course the only reason anyone plays this game nowadays is nostalgia, for anyone who didn’t play this game when it first came out it has about as much appeal as playing WoW with an Atari joystick.